Counterfeiting, contraband, cocaine: how Panama’s trade hub lost its lustre

Colón, lying near the Caribbean Sea entrance to the Panama Canal, became the site of the world’s second largest free trade zone in 1948. Photograph: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy

In the Colón Free Trade Zone, near the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal, the dated Perspex and glass buildings are emblazoned with brand names for electronics, perfumes and textiles. Behind loom vast warehouses and dozens of port cranes, while on the street, shop owners unload merchandise from shipping containers.

Established in 1948, the world’s second largest free-trade zone was envisioned as a wholesale redistribution centre for Latin America and the Caribbean, but it has become a global hub of counterfeiting, contraband and cocaine.